Emergency teams continue to scour Msunduzi River for missing girl
Emergency teams
searching for an eight-year-old girl swept away in the Msunduzi River hope to
expand their search now that water levels have started to subside.
The child went missing during heavy rains last week.
"Now with the water levels low, we believe this can allow the search and rescue to get directly into the river because in previous days they were running next to the river,” says Msunduzi Mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla.
The mayor visited peace valley bridge in Ashdown where the child disappeared.
It's believed her mother was trying to cross a flooded low-lying bridge at the time.
She was carrying her two-month-old baby on her back and holding the older child's hand.
But the little girl was then swept away by raging waters - as her mother tried to hand her over to a man who'd wanted to help them.
Thebolla says this is the fourth drowning reported near the bridge in a year.
READ: Man’s body found at Cuttings Beach in Durban
He says they're looking at installing barriers to prevent people from crossing the river.
"We need to do what we did in Greenthorpe Road where we have a type of bridge, where the water level would rise, the gates would close and people would know not to use those bridges."
